13 posts tagged “work”
I hand in my final assignment for my PGDHE course.
YAY!!!
Now gimme my cert.
One of the things that's really irritated me since I started on this job is my ID tag. Yes, I know just about everybody has to carry one, but... Many of my colleagues (the academic ones at least) eschew the whole lanyard thing and store it in their wallets or little pouches, probably because they don't want it hanging around their necks like a noose either. For a bit I clipped it to my waistband, but it was uncomfortable and my tops would snag on it. I can't do that pouch thing because I'd always end up leaving it on my desk and locking myself out of my office. So I started using the HR-issued lanyard again. Bleh.
What surprises me is that there aren't more pretty ID tag holders around. There are these beaded lanyards on eBay, some really gorgeous, but what I want is something nice to hold the card itself. Why don't have?
Then I saw one from Coach and thought "classy!"
Went to Taka again today and saw this from Hikosen Cara.
We finally got our business cards yesterday. Nothing very fancy, just my name, department and position, then the same in Chinese on the reverse. There's also my office address, DID, e-mail address and my mobile number. I was asked why I included the last, and to be honest, I don't know. I don't mind having it on the card - it's not like I plan to hand it out to all my students.
Our new office was finished way ahead of schedule, and we had nice new desks - but no chairs! How desks could possibly be deemed more important than chairs is beyond me. Anyway, our new office belongs just to the English, er, section? (slips of the tongue aside, we aren't a department unto ourselves), and is on the theatre wing of the building. It's rather isolated, and I'm not sure if I like it, to be honest.
Went shopping with I after work and came back with Shiina Ringo's new album (平成風俗) and a black knit mini-dress from Mphosis. The dress has two pockets and a sash - very cute. I'm going to wear it with my new leggings, and I hope it's more flattering than most of the babydolls and tunics on the racks these days.
I'm being naughty and posting this from my (temporary) office, on the occasion of being assigned my work laptop. To my disappointment, it's just another Acer, albeit with more bells and whistles than my own. This widescreen Aspire has a built-in webcam and comes with a bluetooth VOIP phone. What the school imagines we'd do with this, I don't know. Skype on company time?
I'm tempted to bring the whole thing home to play with during the weekend, but it's quite a bit heavier than my own little Acer, and I have elsewhere to go after work.
TM resurfaced today, after a few months of being MIA. If this sounds familiar, it's because he's done it before. Same time last year, in fact. My theory is that when he's on the move, his unread e-mails pile up rapidly so that by the time he checks his account, there's a huge mountain in his inbox that he just can't be bothered to sift through too carefully. Thus the "lost" mail.
It's actually funny that he should e-mail me today. This afternoon, the consultant I'm working with, RK, had just asked if I was going to meet TM on my trip back to Melbourne for graduation. Maybe it takes a third party to invoke his name for him to reappear! LOL.
His e-mail is very encouraging, and really what I've been hoping to hear (again with the déjà vu). Maybe it's fate that he should get back to me after I've committed myself to this institution (no pun intended) for the next two years. Otherwise I might have been too distracted by the elusive promise of a scholarship to actually work. When we meet, I should get some direction as to how I can finally get that damn thing published (M says he probably won't be much of a help, but I hope she's wrong!)
Today was my second day at my new job, and it really is very hard, these long hours; by the time 5.30pm comes around, I'm dying for my bed. I've never been so wistful for my days of working 9 to 12. Because classes don't start till May at the earliest, lunches are long and leisurely for now. My new laptop arrives next week - might be able to stave off possible drowsiness at work then, I hope!
I am officially, as of today, gainfully employed.
Okay, technically, all I've done is to sign the contract that'll keep me gainfully employed for 2 years from 1 March.
I'll be a Lecturer II (junior?) at a fine arts college, teaching ESL, and probably communication skills and art history as well. I am to be part of what the management fondly calls a "new initiative", which may be freely translated to mean "bloody hard work". That said, I guess I've had it easy for a long time now. It's time to buckle down and put my money where my mouth is. Damn.
I'm supposed to enjoy the month of freedom I've got left, but that'll be a bit hard when I have to make what money I've got left stretch till the end of March at the very least. CNY come quick!
I have to rant a bit here about mock lessons. If you don't know what they are, they're demos you make to the PTB in a school, to "show quali", as they say in Hong Kong. I've done my share of them, and while they're awkward and I have doubts as to how much a 30 min demo really tells you, I have no violent objections to them unless they're like the one I did this morning. What exactly was the point of having nobody who knows anything about TESOL sit in on my lesson? Actually, I came away with the impression that the whole point of the exercise was to be "shown" that my ability as a teacher is questionable. Also, to show me who's the boss (i.e., somebody who, should I be hired, wouldn't remember my name should I walk past him in the school corridors). There was something very Asian about the whole thing: he, high and mighty big boss who wouldn't deign to introduce himself, and me, lowly teacher who would be fortunate to be hired by his school. (Unfortunately, that's how many interviews go here in Singapore - I'm sure they're a real buzz for power-tripping bosses.) The irony is that this outfit is currently owned by Americans.
We had duck tonight for dinner: Nanjing salted duck. I love duck, and this is really tasty way of preparing it. After watching a chef in Nanjing do this on cable, we decided to give it a go (with reference to some online recipes).
First clean the duck (my grandmother scalds it and removes any feathers that may still be on it) and pat dry. A lean duck is best for this recipe, apparently. Then dry-roast salt （we used coarse salt as per tv recipe) and coarsely-ground Sichuan peppercorns together in a wok. (Yes, I know it's easier to grind spices after dry roasting, but it did seem rather pointless to grind the coarse salt as well.) Rub the mixture on and inside the duck, and leave to marinate overnight in the fridge.
Before cooking, rinse the mixture off the duck with cold water. Put the duck in a large dish, pour some Shaoxing rice wine over it, and steam for about 1 - 1 ¼ hours. Reserve the liquid and chop up the duck. Served chilled with the liquid.
Verdict: pretty damn close to what you get at restaurants! A very tender, fragrant duck. Ok, it was a bit too salty, and unfortunately we failed to measure the amount of salt we used. One online recipe says 6 tbsp salt and 1 tbsp Sichuan pepper for a 1.8kg duck, but I'm sure we used that much salt. Annoyingly, many Chinese recipes online give no measurements at all! Boiling the duck would also result in a less salty duck, but steaming is easier. It's probably a process of trial and error. Some recipes also use five-spice powder, star anise, etc. in addition to Sichuan pepper, but again, the guy on tv used only Sichuan pepper.
I finished my term at SAA on Friday, and it was really rather bittersweet. Of course, it's always nice to wrap a term up, and this went really smoothly. But I now have no work, indefinitely. I haven't found anything yet for 2007, and don't expect much to be forthcoming before the new year, this being the holiday season. No work means no income; I could write more for PG but even if I wrote something everyday, it still wouldn't be a living, plus I usually prefer to save my Paypal funds for online purchases.
This really puts a cramp on my holiday mood. It's hard to see sales everywhere and hordes of shoppers when you know you ought to be saving. There are about a million things on my wishlist, not to mention some expensive necessities. I can't even think about saving up for my PhD now...
Oh well. I guess I'll try not to think about this too much for the next couple of weeks, and hope for a better 2007.
Ok, let me leave you with the most memorable of the photos I took in China. This was taken at the Longhua Martyrs' Memorial Park in Shanghai. If you click on the picture you should be able to see everything much better, including the staff's obvious puzzlement that I would want a photo of the ticket office. But who wouldn't want a photo of an award-winning window?
Had an annoying bout of sinusitis last week, the aftereffects of which I'm still suffering now. My nose is all stuffed up (especially in my air-conditioned classroom), and I'm trying to wean myself off Otrivin nasal drops. A generous amount of eucalyptus, peppermint and tea tree EOs in my burner all day and night, and a hanky with a few drops of Olbas oil on my pillow, as good as they smell, aren't really cutting it. I'm also taking oral expectorant/decongestant regularly, and today I found Stérimar Sea Water Microspray at Watson's, which seems to be more comfortable (and convenient) then shooting saline up my nose with a syringe. Expensive stuff, though, so I may have to resort to (home-made) saline eventually.
Ok, enough of the gory stuff.
I've been busy on eBay in the last couple of weeks, and some of my stuff are finally showing up. Yesterday I got a new charger for my O2 XDA II, and my decants of Fleur de Narcisse and Mandarine Mandarin. Sadly, my nose doesn't allow me to smell much, so my much-anticipated MM remains unsniffed. I have more decants coming, probably in the next few days.
To celebrate my first payday in a very long time, I went to Orchard after work today. I did no great damage to my bank account. I bought a top from Mango for $49, and picked up a cute little Japan-made atomiser, a Kai lash comb with metal teeth (backup for my Tweezerman) and a mini of Christian Lacroix Tumulte Homme (the super cedary one) at Sasa. Also a set of Brabuddies from Tangs. I also checked out the L'Artisan roomsprays at Bottega Veneta, which were interesting but $110 each, and I don't really trust my nose right now.
I came home to my long-awaited soap saver from eBayer campphil. I used to have this pouch from TBS, which I eventually tossed because the drawstring opening could never close tightly enough to prevent the soap bits from falling out. That one was made of scrubby material, but this one is made from the same mesh that's used to make bath poofs, so it lathers up really well. The drawstring has a toggle and is very secure. I'm using it with my disintegrating Lush shower jelly right now.
That's not the only thing I got in the post today though. I also got a letter of rejection from an institute I applied to. While I never harboured any great hopes of getting the job, it's still quite depressing to be rejected without even an interview. I'd even e-mailed them an edited version of my MT after they requested a writing sample.
Then when I checked my e-mail, I found a rejection e-mail from the Boon Lay outfit I interviewed with the other day. Two rejections in a day is just cruel! Regardless of how I feel about long commutes, nobody likes to be rejected. I've now just about crossed out 3 of the (top!) tertiary institutions I applied to, and the disappointment is bitter and hard to swallow. I have some idea of why I wasn't accepted, but if I'm right, it's not anything I'm ashamed of. I won't say that my ego hasn't taken a battering today, though.
I'm waiting to hear from the institution in the city, the part-time one. Over there, it seems to be a matter of waiting to see if there are enough classes for every teacher who wants a position, but I don't know how they'll choose if there aren't enough. I like how they aren't unrealistically picky over there, but it also means that my MA probably doesn't count for much with them. I've met the other applicants at a staff briefing, and most of them don't seem to be TESOL specialists, in fact.
The fact is, right now, I'm not sure how far my MA will get me in Singapore. At this point, my only gain seems to be personal satisfaction. My MT result is still not out, and if it proves to be disappointing, I'm really not sure what my next move should be.
Now playing: George and Ira Gershwin in Hollywood (EMI)
Yes, I'm back! I've been busy, then lazy. This is a summary of what I've been up to since my last post.
- Started a part-time contract at SAA. It's a very small class, lovely students at Pre-Intermediate level. I'm using the new Cutting Edge, which is definitely an improvement over the previous edition. I like the longer terms they have in this school, which allows me to teach (and the students to learn) at a comfortable pace. This one ends in mid-December, which is great if I get to start a new job in January.
- Went to China on holiday with my parents. We joined a tour of the classic Jiangnan cities of Hangzhou (pleasant), Suzhou (got barely a glimpse), Wuxi (underrated), Nanjing (duck!) and Shanghai, with a stopover in the canal town of Wuzhen (if one more person tells me Zhouzhuang is better, I'll scream). Also wasted a day (and night) at Hengdian (Hengdian Movie and Television City, where we never got to see the really interesting bits) and Yiwu (Small Commodity Market, humongous and a complete waste of time). Shanghai, well... Shanghai has to be seen to be believed. Probably a fantastic place for pampered expats to live in, but doesn't have that much to offer tourists. Has a great museum, and the food is good if I don't have to eat Shanghainese every day. All in all, an attractive region of China, I think. More beautiful than the northern cities and more historical than the cities south of it.
- A tied the knot with her honey! I was maid of honour, and the wedding was beautiful. The 2-day affair was fatiguing, but I had fun lah.
- I got my first interview! This was at a place far, far away, called Boon Lay (haha). It was quite a formal thing, with a panel of 4 interviewers, but I came out of it relatively unscathed and I really don't think I could have done better. That said, I'm not sure if I want to commute to Boon Lay on a daily basis.
In other news, well, there's no other news, that's the problem. I had been waiting patiently for my MT result, until I's came out (congrats again! what an accomplishment!!) while I was in China. 3 weeks later, I'm still waiting (not quite as patiently) for mine. I've refrained from bugging CR about it, since I figured (correctly, as it turns out) that the markers have probably been too busy to get around to marking my MT. It looks like I won't be able to graduate until March, which is just as well. I need time to save up $$$ and summer in Melbourne is quite miserable anyway.
